On our first official day in the glorious nation of Costa Rica, we were given the amazing opportunity to visit and work with some of the local elementary school children in the neighboring village. After waking up bright and early, and eating a hardy breakfast of fresh papaya and watermelon, we made our way down the road to the school which was conveniently located a short 5 minutes away from the center.
Upon arrival, we found the school to be a one story building consisting of three rooms: a classroom, a cafeteria, and computer lab. The children ranged from ages as young as 6 to as mature as 13, but all shared a common love for learning and of course soccer.
After introducing ourselves to the student and the teacher and faculty, we were split into two groups. Half of us were assigned to interact and socialize with the children with beaded crafts and soccer, while the other half was assigned a plethora of jobs around the school grounds ranging from the carving a makeshift irrigation system to direct rainfall away from their greenhouse to chopping down palm trees in order to obtain the edible parts of its foliage which by far was the best part of the day.
After several hours at the school, we returned to the center briefly to shovel down the usual beans and rice lunch, before once again being whisked away via our bus to the Volcano Arenal National Park, home to historically one of the most active volcanos in the world. Along the way to the park, we were lucky enough to finally see an infamous sloth sleeping comfortably in a tree.
At the park we were subjected to a long hike to the many breathtaking views of the scenery and the volcano. The humidity only made the hike ten times more treacherous, but the scenes were more than worth our exhaustion.
Once we returned to the center after taking hundreds of pictures at the park, we were tired. By the end of the day, we felt that our aching muscles and sweaty bodies were an evident sign that we had productive and fulfilling day.
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